A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 8
Crime Fiction
Date Published: 1/8/2024
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
Award-winning author Thomas A Burns Jr. spins another mind-blowing tale about twentysomething detective Natalie McMasters and her unlikely family that’s torn from today's headlines This time Nattie is preggers (?!) and unsure of the father. The candidates? Her husband Danny, the love of her life, or her biological father, who cruelly had his way with her.
Complicating the situation, her Uncle Amos's 3M Detective Agency is hemorrhaging money, and even the estate that houses Nattie, the agency and the fam is at risk.
Her quakeworthy solution? An infamous social media influencer and unapologetic misogynist is bringing his totally unwoke nude beauty pageant to Capital City and wants to hire 3M to provide security for its million-dollar prize. Her hormones raging, Nattie gets it that a cool mil would make all her money troubles vanish. But she doesn’t know that a malevolent enemy from her past is back and gunning for her…
Meanwhile, her foster son Eduardo has his own problems. Humiliated at school, he falls under a deadly influence that sends him racing toward an unimaginable act of violence that will change his young life forever. The astonishing ending is like nothing you've ever seen in contemporary crime fiction and will totally leave you reeling.
You'll truly get why Natalie McMasters is "a detective for the new millennium".
INTERVIEW
What is the hardest part of writing
your books?
The hardest
part of writing my books is finding the time. These days, an author wears many
hats. Not only must I write, but I must market the books that I have written,
and that is a daily job. It requires regular social media posts, upkeep of my
blog, and creating book ads. Not only do I write my books, I design them, which
means making my own covers and formatting the text for Kindle and paperback
editions. I’m also trying to make more public appearances for book signings, so
I have to identify possible venues, fill out applications, and travel to the
venue and participate. Reading is also very important to keep tabs on what’s
trending in the marketplace and to see how other authors do things. Finally, I have
a lovely wife who supports me in all of this, to whom I must pay some
attention.
What are your most played songs?
I find it
difficult to write with music playing, because it distracts me. If I want
background noise while writing, I choose white noise such as rain falling or change
ringing. That said, my fave music has always been classical music, especially
opera. My favorite composer is Richard Wagner. I also like Gustav Mahler, Benjamin
Britten and Gioachino Rossini.
Do you have critique partners or beta
readers?
Yes, I have
been attending a long-standing critique group for at least five years. We all
write in different genres, which is actually helpful because there are no previous
expectations about how a given book should be. We simply critique the work in
front of us for good writing, how well it holds the reader’s interest, etc.
What book are you reading now?
I’m reading
Storm Watch, by C.J. Box, the penultimate book in the Joe Pickett series. I
admire Box because he has created such relatable characters in the Pickett
family, the citizens of Saddlestring, Wyoming and others. I also admire the simplicity
and clarity of his writing, which make his books easy to read and draw the
reader into the story – a quality I’d really like to emulate in my work.
How did you start your writing career?
I was working
for a government contractor when the contract ran out and I was let go. My
first inclination was to look for another job in my field (toxicology) but then
I decided to try and fulfill a lifelong dream by setting up as a freelance
science and medical writer. I did this with moderate success for a couple of
years, but then I wrote a short crime story, Stakeout!, featuring private
detective trainee Natalie McMasters Stakeout! is free to read on my website at https://www.3mdetectiveagency.com/stakeout-a-natalie-mcmasters-story/.
I tried to sell it in the limited mystery and crime magazine market with no
luck, then I decided to turn the idea into a novel, and the first Natalie
McMasters Mystery, Stripper! was born.
I tried for a
year to get an agent for Stripper! but several things about it made that
unlikely—it’s dark, sexy and violent and Nattie’s voice uses Gen Z slang
extensively, making it a challenging read. If there’s one thing that mainstream
publishing doesn’t want, it’s anything outside the box. So after a year of
frustration, I decided to publish Stripper! on Amazon myself. I was 65 at the
time, and just didn’t have any more time to jerk around. That was one of best
decisions I ever made in my life.
Now, with
Shooters!, the Natalie McMasters Mysteries series has grown to eight books. The
sixth book, Killers!, won the prestigious Silver Falchion award at the Killer
Nashville International Writers’ Conference for best action adventure book of
2022, and the seventh book, Sister!, was a finalist for the same award in 2023.
And I just achieved full membership in the Mystery Writers of America, the
organization started by Nero Wolfe’s creator Rex Stout—that’s a high bar to
jump for a self-published author.
The moral of
the story is to always take a chance on yourself. No one will work harder for
you than you.
Tell us about your next release.
I hope to
release my next book in April, 2024. It will be my second volume of canonical
Sherlock Holmes pastiches, entitled Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson: A Peek
into Doctor Watson’s Dispatch Box. The tales it contains will all be written as
to be published in The Strand Magazine in the 19th century. If you’re
a fan of Holmes and Watson, don’t miss it.
About the Author
Thomas A. Burns Jr. writes the Natalie McMasters Mysteries from the small town of Wendell, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and son, four cats and a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He was born and grew up in New Jersey, attended Xavier High School in Manhattan, earned B.S degrees in Zoology and Microbiology at Michigan State University and a M.S. in Microbiology at North Carolina State University. As a kid, Tom started reading boys’ mystery series such as the Hardy Boys, Ken Holt and Rick Brant, then graduated to the classics by authors such as A. Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout, to name a few. Tom has written fiction as a hobby all of his life, beginning with Man from U.N.C.L.E. stories in marble-backed copybooks in grade school. He built a career as technical, science and medical writer and editor for nearly thirty years in industry and government. Currently a full-time novelist, he’s excited to publish his own mystery series, as well as writing stories about his second most favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes. Tom’s Holmes story, The Camberwell Poisoner, appeared in the March–June issue of The Strand Magazine in 2021, and many of his other Holmes stories have been published by MX Books and Belanger Books. The sixth book in the Natalie McMasters Mysteries, Killers!, was released in September, 2021, and won the Silver Falchion award for best action/adventure book of 2021 at the Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference. His latest Natalie McMasters Mystery, Sister!, was published on December 5, 2022, and was chosen as a finalist for the Silver Falchion award in 2023. Tom has also written a Lovecraftian horror novel, The Legacy of the Unborn, under the pen name of Silas K. Henderson‒a sequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s masterpiece At the Mountains of Madness. Tom also published his first volume of Sherlock Holmes stories, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: Ten Steps from Baker Street, on March 1, 2023.
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